Time is of the Essence: Gaining and Maintaining a Competitive Advantage with Social Media

You keep hearing about social media and how it's spreading like wildfire. But as a business person with a crazy schedule - saddled with the added stress of rocky economic times and a shrinking marketing budget - you need to know: Is there any real business value to social media, or is it mostly buzz? And if there's value, how on earth will I have time to learn it and use it effectively?

Trend-chasing and random leaps into social media will not enhance your bottom line. What will is strategic social media participation - the alignment of social media activities with your business objectives and target demographics. If conducted methodically, the benefits of social media include improvements in search results, customer service, brand awareness, PR/media relations, recruitment, reputation management, and other measurable outcomes..